The Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (OCTELA), a state affiliate of NCTE, hosted its 2026 conference on March 6-7 at the Cherry Valley Hotel. This year’s conference theme was a celebration of the interconnectedness between literacy and the visual and performing arts, featuring presentations that highlighted action research and practices grounded in the use of art as a medium to engage students and foster a love for literacy. Keynote speakers included artist/illustrator Rachelle Baker, graphic novelist Bianca Xunise, educator Dr. Alfred Thompson and poet Siaara Freeman.
Dr. Zoe Plotnick, who serves the OCTELA Board as TESOL Chair, presented a session exploring how art and visual imagery can offer an accessible point of entry for students to playfully practice drawing inferences, synthesizing text-to-self and text-to-text connections, and other cognitive skills that are the foundation of literary analysis. Her session, which was titled “This Card is You: Tarot, Pokémancy, and the Art of Interpretation,” introduced approaches that invite students to approach literary theory with symbolic play, visual analysis, and recognition of the everyday archetypes that help stories resonate across time and culture.
